EU ban Internet service providers from manipulating and blocking access…

The EU will ban Internet service providers from manipulating and blocking access to certain websites, according to a European Commission official.

Speaking with EUobserver on Tuesday (11 June) following an internal debate among commissioners, an EU official indicated that the proposal would include a ban on blocking and throttling. Bandwidth throttling, where a network provider deliberately slows down the service on certain websites, has been identified as the most common restriction to service.

So far, across Europe, only two countries have ensshrined net neutrality in law: The Netherlands and Slovenia. Constance Kurz is not confident that other countries will follow that lead any time soon. “Consumers aren’t very important in this game,” she says. European providers would like to have a slice of the big providers’ pie, most of which come from the US. “But, net neutrality isn’t an issue for them. They are business-oriented companies, so it’s the state’s job to set the limits here.”

“They will decide by the end of the month,” said John C. Andrews, deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), when asked for an update about last week’s visit by EU transportation officials.

The Slovenian Parliament has approved an innovative legislative framework on net neutrality which is going to shake the debate in Europe. The Slovenian law, adopted on December 20 and published in the Official Journal on December 31, confirms the open and neutral character of the Internet and prohibits discrimination of Internet traffic on the basis of the services provided through it. The concrete impact of the new rules, which in some parts appear a bit vague, will strongly depend on the implementation by the local regulator APEK. In any case, the first-sight impression is that the Slovenian Parliament is gone further than the corresponding provisions of the European Regulatory Framework (such as article 8(4)g of Directive 2002/21, for instance). The key-norm seems to be article 203 of the Slovenian law, pursuant to which (to my understanding) ISPs will be prevented from restricting, delaying or slowing Internet traffic except in the case they have to solve congestions, preserve security or address spam. In other words, differentiation of quality of Internet traffic should be prohibit if it is an instrument to discriminate Internet services for pure commercial reasons.